


Under the guise

by apathyinreverie



Series: Tripping over tombstones [7]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Brothers, Gen, Post-Canon, Protective Ben Hargreeves, Siblings, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-12 01:32:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18436253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apathyinreverie/pseuds/apathyinreverie
Summary: “I want to be like you. You always seem so carefree. I want to be Number Four.”He had truly meant it when he said that, but these days Luther cringes every time he thinks of his so carelessly spoken words.





	Under the guise

In Luther’s eyes, Klaus has always been the weakest, the softest, the most unreliable of all of them.

Even when Klaus developed his vicious streak in his teens, even when he went to live on the streets - rather leaving the comfort of their home behind than continuing to spend his life under their father’s rule - and got himself addicted to every illegal and legal mind-altering substance on this earth. Even when he became so eccentric, so colorful, so _unpredictable_ that just watching him flit around was almost physically exhausting. Even then, he had still been the softest between the seven of them.

To top it all off, his brother had built himself a hard-shell, carefree exterior - and Luther, like an _idiot_ , had even believed that mask for years - but being around his siblings again constantly, now that they are in the past, has shown Luther very clearly that beneath that shell, beneath that front Klaus is just as soft, just as vulnerable as ever.

Klaus who always bends but never breaks. Klaus who never even puts up resistance to anything, who just bends, conforms to anyone's will, always does as asked or simply disappears if he doesn’t agree rather than fight about it. It's only recently that has Luther come to realize that his softness might just be Klaus’ greatest strength.

Strength which - against all appearances - Klaus has in abundance.

Absurdly enough, the day Luther realizes just that, is the day Klaus falls asleep in their presence for the first time since they were actually children and not just stuck in their kid bodies. It doesn't occur to Luther until much later that he hasn't actually seen Klaus so much as doze over the past fifteen years, his brother seemingly always in motion, never sitting still, and definitely never resting.

And Luther had never considered whether there might be an actual reason for Klaus never lowering his guard enough around them to fall asleep in their presence. He knows better now.

+++

They've been back in the past for a few months now, their days filled with missions and training and lectures and training and arguments and scheming and planning and oh, some more missions and some _more_ training.

The past few days in particular have been pretty harrowing, just one mission after the other and when they finally get back home from a mission in the evening Luther can see that the others are just as exhausted as he feels. And at the news that their father isn’t home tonight, that they will be spared the immediate after-mission-debriefing for once, a breath of relief goes through their entire group.

Having the house to themselves for once, they even decide to move their regular sibling evening discussion to the living room instead of one of their rather cramped rooms.

They spread out over the various couches, pillows and armchairs as they argue about who should stay home with Vanya during missions next week to train with her – she doesn’t quite trust herself yet to use her powers without the assurance that at least one of them is close by to help her come out of it in case her powers take over again like they did in the future, you know, when she accidentally started the apocalypse - and by the end of the argument they are all so exhausted from the day that none of them seems even remotely willing to move from their spots.

Five and Ben have each claimed one of the armchairs by the windows, while Klaus and Vanya are sharing a couch, having settled on opposite ends, using the armrests as pillows. Luther is sitting – or rather slumping – on the couch across from them, feet up on the table and Allison’s legs in his lap, her head on the other end of the couch, and Diego demanded any and all pillows for himself and is now sprawled out on a pile of them on the floor, completing their circle.

Luther is probably the last one awake, everyone else already asleep or at least dozing - although you never know with Five, he might also just be pretending, kept awake by his ever-present paranoia - and he is well on his way to dreamland as well, barely noticing Pogo slip into the room to switch off the lights and then leaving them to their rest.

It feels like he barely managed to nod off before he suddenly comes awake again, something in the air around them changing, shaking him from his near-slumber.

He blinks in the darkness of the room. He must have at least nodded off for an hour or two because it’s definitely night time now, the light outside having faded entirely and the room around them is almost entirely dark, only a slight shimmer of light coming in from the streetlamps outside.

Luther looks around blearily, still not sure what woke him.

It's then he notices a flash of something, a pulse of muted blue light coming from the other couch, before it disperses once more in a slow creeping shimmery wave, wafting through the room like luminescent mist.

It takes his brain a few seconds to catch up, to make out where it's coming from.

Another pulse of light.

Klaus.

His brother who is clearly still asleep, face smooshed into the armrest of the couch he is lying on, glowing briefly in the dark, his veins standing out in stark relief for a second as a pulse of pure, bright blue light seems to run through them.

Klaus whose face is scrunched up, lips moving, one of his hands clawing into the pillow beneath his cheek.

Luther squints at him through the darkness, still not entirely awake, trying to make sense of what might be going on.

And suddenly, something in the very air seems to still, as though the room is holding its breath. And then the light coming from Klaus intensifies, the pulses giving way to a steadily increasing brightness coming from his brother.

Luther stares, only vaguely aware of Five sitting up from his curled up position on one of the armchairs and Diego lifting his head from where he is still lying on his pile of pillows on the floor. Both of them clearly having been woken similarly as Luther, most likely by the sudden return of light to the formerly entirely dark room.

The three of them watch as the light gains intensity.

It's the same blue light that Klaus emits whenever he brings other spirits into the physical realm during training or during a mission, similar to the light that originally brought Ben into the physical realm when they were still in the future.

But something is also _different_.

Because this light is murkier somehow, less brilliant, its glow seemingly muted.

Another wave of light, this one much more intense than the others before it. And just as Klaus' powers usually do, in its wake the light leaves blue-glowing figures, figures that weren't there before.

And Luther gives a startled breath, his eyes widening. Because these figures aren’t at all like the ghosts they’ve seen Klaus produce before whenever he purposely brings spirits into the realm of the living.

Usually, the ghosts Klaus summons into the physical realm are entirely clear, wearing clothes, speaking normally, looking just like normal people if one ignores their bluish glow or the deadly wounds some of them carry, kind of looking like projections of real, normal people who might be lost in the realm of the dead but simply glad to have someone to talk to, at most searching for a way out.

But these figures right now, the ones currently taking form around them, crowding the room, these are different, their forms fuzzy somehow, their outlines not quite clear.

Luther stares wide-eyed. These figures are wraith-like, almost skeletal, faces halfway hidden in shadows that aren’t actually there, barely recognizable as people at all, their features twisted. And as soon as they appear, they immediately hone in on Klaus, ignoring the rest of them scattered around the room entirely.

And then the wailing starts, their voices almost inhuman, words barely decipherable, freezing the very breath in Luther’s lungs.

Warbling, screeching, wailing cries for help, the voices overlapping, drowning each other out, melding together into a single _KlausKlausKlauspleasehelpusKLAUSKlaushelpusKlaus_.

And immediately, Ben snaps awake. His eyes fly open, a single glance around at the wailing figures and he is already scrambling from his seat, over to where Klaus is lying, still caught in sleep, face twisted into a grimace, his lips moving as though pleading himself, hands twitching helplessly in sleep.

And all of them are awake now - kind of impossible to sleep with the deafening lament going on around them - staring horrified, helplessly, unsure what to do. Vanya has scrambled backwards on her end of the couch and Diego jumped to his feet the moment the wailing started, hands hovering over his knives no matter how useless they would be against ghosts and Luther can feel a harsh shiver run through Allison where he still has a tight grip around one of her ankles. And Luther doesn't think he has ever felt quite this useless. 

Ben is skidding to his knees next to Klaus' side of the couch, just reaching past the ghostly figures that are swarming around Klaus, as though their presence is neither surprising, nor horrifying, like there is nothing to the figures begging, pleading for help in inhuman voices, their ghostly, skeletal hands reaching for Klaus, grasping at his clothes. Almost like Ben has seen them too often to still be overly affected by them.

Ben just reaches past them and proceeds to try to poke Klaus awake, though gently, not even settling his full hand on Klaus’ arm, unlike the ghosts that are trying their best to grasp at any part of Klaus that their not-quite-physical forms can touch for a bare instance before their hands are already slipping through the physical world.

“Someone switch on the fucking light!” Ben suddenly snaps out, his voice harsh but his hands gentle as he still tries to coax their brother awake, barely even looking away from Klaus.

And Vanya is already scrambling over to the main light switch before Ben even finishes his exclamation, while Five uses his powers to skip around the room with a few jumps, quickly switching on any lamps scattered around the room.

Everything is immediately flooded with bright, fluorescent light. And in the sudden brightness of the room, the figures promptly turn mostly see-through, but still remain visible enough, still wailing, their demands getting more aggressive if anything, like they _know_ that they are about to be pushed from this realm.

And Ben is still murmuring to Klaus, gently prodding at him and - _finally_ \- Klaus comes awake with a gasp, his eyes snapping open.

Everything seems to still, a moment of utter, deathly silence. And then Klaus blinks and the figures just disappear, like smoke dispersing in a sudden gust of wind.

The sudden silence around them is only filled with everyone's harsh breathing, the difference to the deafening wailing from just moments before almost jarring to the senses.

And they watch as Klaus just blinks up at the ceiling for a few seconds as though trying to get his bearings, before he lets out an exhausted sigh and finally turns his head slightly, blinking at Ben who is still kneeling beside him and the rest of them with bleary eyes.

Luther’s breath is coming in short burst, his fight-or-flight reflexes still at the ready, adrenaline pumping through his veins from what just happened and from the horrific realization that seeing dead people might just be the _least_ terrifying aspect of Klaus’ powers.

Is it like this every time Klaus falls asleep? Does the dark of night always mean being crowded by wailing ghosts for him?

And suddenly the dark circles under his brother's eyes - the same circles that Luther had always taken as yet another symptom of Klaus' drug habits - gain a completely different, a far darker meaning. If this is what waits for Klaus whenever he closes his eyes then it’s a miracle he ever manages to go to sleep at all.

But maybe he could look into taking something to help him go to sleep, right? Something to take the edge off? Maybe that would help?

…

Oh.

_Oh._

Luther feels disbelief run through himself. Disbelief at his own apparent ignorance. _Well, congratulations for this particular epiphany,_ he thinks to himself. _Only took me about fifteen years to get here. Only_ fifteen years _to realize that maybe there is something more to Klaus' drug habits than just the obvious._ _  
_

Ben and Klaus however seem pretty unaffected by what just happened, like this is simply par for the course whenever Klaus falls asleep.

And they all watch as Ben murmurs something to Klaus, before he moves to squeeze onto the sofa as well. Klaus simply makes room for Ben to lean halfway against the armrest and then slumps entirely against his brother, now using Ben's chest as a pillow, closing his eyes with a tired sigh, clearly not even having come entirely awake as he immediately starts drifting off again.

The remaining five of them are still staring at the pair. Luther can feel the slight shivers still running through Allison from time to time, sees Five standing close to Vanya, a hand on her shoulder and only a few steps away from Diego whose hands are still hovering over his knives, his eyes narrowed, angry, most likely at himself, perfectly mirroring how Luther is currently feeling.

But Ben doesn’t even look at them, doesn’t even really acknowledge them or anything that just happened, just calmly readjusts the blanket covering Klaus as he himself also gets comfortable on the couch.

Only after several minutes - once Klaus has seemingly drifted off again - does Ben finally look up at them, fixes them all with a rather harsh look. A look filled with anger and something almost like helplessness and definite accusation.

A look that says, ‘ _See?_ Do you _see_ now?’

And they do. Far later than they maybe should have, but they _do_ see.

And Luther can't help but remember sitting on a different sofa with Klaus, being drunk for the first time in his life after the revelation about the whole moon situation and Klaus sitting next to him, trying to help. Luther remembers lamenting his fate, the unfairness of his existence. Remembers tilting his head to look over at Klaus.

Remembers saying, _“I want to be like you. You always seem so carefree. I want to be Number Four.”_

And Luther had truly meant it when he had said that. But now he can’t help but cringe at his so carelessly spoken words.

Because he also remembers his brother’s imploring reply of, _“Oh no, no, no. Trust me, you don’t want that.”_

And Klaus had been right. Luther _doesn’t_ want to be Number Four. Not at all. If anything, Klaus is the one sibling Luther wouldn’t ever want to trade lives with. He doesn’t think he’d have the strength to bear it.

He doesn’t think anyone would.

**Author's Note:**

> So, I hope I managed to do Luther justice in this (he's admittedly not my favorite in the series XD)... Would love to know what you think (*^^*)


End file.
